


The Darkness Tells No Lies

by robron_til_the_end



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Conversations, Honesty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 04:19:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11154105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robron_til_the_end/pseuds/robron_til_the_end
Summary: Aaron and Chrissie have an honest heart to heart about their history. Namely Robert.





	The Darkness Tells No Lies

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea why Aaron and Chrissie would be trapped together in the pubs cellar but if you’d just suspend disbelief and go with it, that'd be great! I really wanted some more post affair reaction, which we never got. And now I daresay they’d have even more to discuss. In my head this is set this coming October, using everything we know on screen, so Rebecca is pregnant with Robert’s child (though I still doubt this to be the case personally).

 

Chrissie kept banging on the trapdoor to the cellar, whereas Aaron wasn’t bothering. He knew it well enough to know it wasn’t going to shift unless someone unlocked it from the outside. He’d been trapped in the pubs cellar a couple of times before when the door had slammed shut. Usually by accident and only for twenty minutes or so, not because Lachlan was going crazy.

“You’re wasting your energy,” Aaron said dully. “Can only be opened from the outside.”

“Well, here’s an idea, why don’t you call someone?!” Chrissie snapped.

“You don’t think I tried that?” Aaron asked, wondering how stupid she thought he was. “My phone’s charging in the pub.”

Chrissie patted the pockets on her jacket, even though by now she must know her phone’s not there. “In my purse,” she said under her breath. Aaron was leaning against the wall, legs stretched out in the dim light as he let Chrissie come to the realisation they were stuck here. After five full minutes, she took her heels off and sat down on the floor, after looking at the dusty surface in distaste for a moment.

“Thinking about _Robert_ are you?” Chrissie said, voice dripping with disdain.

“Why?” Aaron asked.

“You’re fiddling with your ring,” Chrissie said, nodding at his hands. Aaron hadn't even realised he was doing it and he made a conscious effort to stop, now more aware of his hands than he had been before. “He’ll cheat on you again, you know,” Chrissie continued.

“How about we don’t talk about Robert?” Aaron suggested. He did not need insight into his husband, not from her of all people.

“Because we have so much else in common?” Chrissie started. Aaron didn’t answer, but after ten minutes of complete silence, not even distant noises, Aaron slowly realised that talking about Robert would be better than this quiet.

“He won’t cheat,” Aaron said softly, aware he could be poking something that would be better left alone, but he couldn’t help it.

“Of course he will,” Chrissie said. “That man can’t do faithful, and you know it just as well as I do.”

“He made a mistake,” Aaron said, still keeping his voice quiet. Getting angry wasn’t going to help, but he didn’t need to convince her anyway. Would probably fail, but he didn’t want to be in a silent stand off with her either.

“Aaron, you’re not stupid.”

“It was once,” Aaron said. “With Rebecca, it was once and it was just sex.”

“He told you that did he?” Chrissie asked, her voice making it clear exactly what she thought of that.

“Yes, he told me that,” Aaron said firmly. “And I trust him.” Chrissie scoffed. “You didn’t see him. He couldn’t live with the guilt. No one made him tell me, he did it on his own.”

“And that makes it better?” Chrissie said in disbelief.

“For him, yeah it does,” Aaron said quietly. “He’d never have told you the truth about me and him. Never.”

“You’re probably right,” Chrissie admitted. “When did you realise that?”

“About an hour before I was outing him in your kitchen,” Aaron said. “I am sorry about that. For lots of reasons.”

“Why?” Chrissie said. “In the long run, probably better I know the truth. After all, he was sleeping with my sister long before you came along.” And there it is, the word _Rebecca_  hovering in the air, that word, that person who Aaron had been trying to avoid thinking about. How he spent most of his days lately to be honest.

“I shouldn’t have told you like that,” Aaron said. “I mean… I know I didn’t have the moral high ground, sleeping with him when I knew he was married, but… that wasn’t your fault.”

“Why did you tell me?”

“Because I realised he never would,” Aaron said slowly. “And I was in love with him and I knew that I would never be able to let him go unless something drastic happened. I am in love with him. And… I wanted him to choose me. I thought telling you would make him choose me. Idiot,” he said to himself.

“Why do you stay?” Chrissie asked, and the condescending tone in her voice had gone. Now she sounded genuinely curious.

“When he told me about Rebecca,” Aaron said slowly. “I wanted to leave. I told him to get out and he did, he didn’t beg me, he didn’t plead for forgiveness. Chucking him out would have been the easy choice, probably the right choice. But I love him, and I love him enough to forgive him for one mistake. It was just sex with her, and with me and him, during the affair? That was never _just_ sex.” Chrissie flinched slightly. "I don't want to hurt you, not over him. You don't still care..."

"No," Chrissie said. "But knowing how oblivious I was for so long isn't easy."

"No," Aaron agreed. "Forgiving's not easy either," he said, lips tilting up into a slight smile. “Two years ago, when he was with you, all I wanted was for him to see that I was there, and I loved him. I needed him to choose me. But it works both ways, and me staying with him… well, I guess it’s me choosing him too.”

“You were the prime suspect for his shooting,” Chrissie reminded him.

“But I didn’t do it,” Aaron said. “And that wasn’t even the tough bit, seeing him on life support after he’d hurt everyone around him. Being remanded in custody for it? No. The really hard bit was allowing him back into my life, and hoping that this time he wouldn’t hurt me.”

“But he has hurt you,” Chrissie reminded him, now speaking softly.

“Yeah,” Aaron said. “But I’ve been happy too, and I’m not often happy. He helped me through the toughest time of my life, with no expectation that I’d ever get back with him. But he stayed, and he helped me, and I wouldn’t be here without him. That’s worth another chance. I think, anyway.”

“But the baby…” Chrissie said.

“If Rebecca shuts him out of his child’s life…” Aaron started, knowing that despite the bravado, Robert wouldn’t get over it. “She can’t.”

“She can if she wants to,” Chrissie said. Then tried being really truthful “Come on, Robert would be a terrible father.”

“And you’re basing that on what, fidelity?” Aaron said, scowling at her. “He’d be a good dad, because he knows exactly what a bad one’s like.”

“Mm?”

“I won’t talk about Jack Sugden with you,” Aaron said calmly. “He tells me things that are private, no matter how long we’re locked in here. No matter what happens between me and him, I won't speak about things that he wants kept private.”

“He never talked about Jack,” Chrissie said.

“That’s because it’s difficult for him.”

“How are you coping with the baby?” Chrissie asked and Aaron sighed. "Not him, you."

“Every time I see Rebecca, I hate it,” Aaron said honestly. “Because it’s the start of a family he can’t get with me, it‘s a reminder that he slept with her.” He sighed. “It’ll be easier once it’s here.”

“Will it?”

“Yeah,” Aaron said firmly. “I can’t resent a baby, Chrissie. What kind of man do you think I am? None of this is a baby's fault.”

“No,” Chrissie agreed. “It’s not going to be easy.”

“Yeah, well that’s the definition of being with Robert, isn’t it?” Aaron said, and Chrissie actually laughed at that before they lapsed into silence. “Chrissie, you do realise that baby might not be Robert’s, don’t you?”

“What?” she said in disbelief. “No, Rebecca said.”

“Once she realised Robert didn’t actually want to be with her, because of the amount of whisky he’d drunk the night before, she went and slept with Ross,” Aaron said. Robert had told him absolutely everything, under the understanding that the only way their marriage could work was proper, complete honesty. “And she carried on with Ross for several weeks after. She’s living under wishful thinking, Chrissie.”

“But why…”

“She wants it to be Robert’s baby,” Aaron said. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about this after all. “Of course she does because she wants him. Why else would she spend an entire conversation begging me to leave him?”

“She didn’t,” Chrissie said in disbelief.

“Being engaged to her own sister didn’t stop her sleeping with Robert,” Aaron reminded her. “And I’m not even her friend, why would she have a problem screwing me over?” If nothing else it seemed to have given Chrissie something to think about.

“Well, then… she should have a DNA test,” Chrissie said.

“Yeah,” Aaron agreed. “If you can persuade her. Robert and I can’t.”

“I mean, I don’t like Robert, but she can’t lie about the father of her baby,” Chrissie continued.

“Again, if you can persuade her…” Aaron said bluntly. They fell into silence before Chrissie changed the subject minutes later.

“Why did you go for him? You knew he was taken.”

“I thought he was gay and in denial,” Aaron said bluntly. “I thought if it wasn’t me, it would be some other guy, and… well, when he looked at me like that, I wanted him. I didn’t really give it much more thought than that.” Aaron shrugged. “I'm not proud, it's the truth. And I didn’t go after him, he came after me.”

“Does that make it better?”

“It’s been so long that I don’t even know,” Aaron said. “It’s just what it was. And I never thought this would happen, buying a house with him as my husband. That was never planned.”

“You let him near Liv,” Chrissie said.

“He loves Liv like his own sister,” Aaron said firmly. “Which is why I know he wouldn’t mistreat this baby.”

“I wouldn’t trust him with Lachlan,” Chrissie said.

“Well considering your son’s locked us in a cellar, I wouldn’t trust Lachlan with him either,” Aaron said. And that effectively brought about the end of the conversation.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm quite nervous about this one, so thanks for reading!


End file.
